The Icarus Syndicate
by Kyuu Neos
Summary: A former terrorist out for revenge, a potential heiress with great sympathy for the lower classes, a high-ranking military officer with the loyalty of his country's troops, a soldier for hire with one goal, a terrorist torn between loyalty and righteousness, a girl with amnesia, and their leader, a girl whose scars are a constant reminder. They are what will save the world; Icarus.


**Author's Note: This is first ever story, so there are probably mistakes. If there's some critical, please do let me know. RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Forming A Pack**

Klein was ticked off. Why, of all the days, today? He glared at his scroll, which displayed the map to his current destination.

' _This better be good_ ,' he thought.

Turning the corner, he glanced around and groaned.

"Great. Now I'm in the ghetto. This day just keeps on getting better and better."

Klein pulled on his hood and, shoving his hands in his pockets, made his way through The Devil's Workshop, as Mistral's ghetto was nicknamed. Though he didn't show it, he was rather nervous; it was common knowledge that the White Fang were increasingly active in this part of town, though for what reason no one knew.

A man whistled at him from across the street, and Klein realized that with the hood covering his face, his long hair probably made him look like a girl. He flipped the man off as he crossed the street.

Walking around a square of yellow tape, he eyed the chalk outline of a person in the middle of it.

' _You poor, poor bastard_ ,' he thought.

After a few more blocks, he looked around to make sure he wasn't being followed, then backed up into an abandoned building. Klein's scroll buzzed.

He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen.

New Message!

From:

The Icarus Syndicate

Oddly, the feeling of uneasiness he'd gotten the first time this number sent him a text wasn't there. He thought back to that first text, exactly two weeks ago.

* * *

Klein sighed heavily. He'd just gotten out of a private, late-night meeting with Haven's headmaster, Professor Oliver. Fortunately, he'd decided to allow Klein to attend Haven, but it took a rather detailed interrogation, which Klein didn't like.

He opened the golden heart-shaped locket that hung from his neck and studied the picture inside. It showed him and two girls, his arms around their shoulders, smiling towards the camera. The two girls were obviously related, but they didn't look alike enough to be sisters, more like cousins.

Klein frowned. He couldn't remember the last time he'd smiled that genuinely, but it was definitely after this picture was taken. In the picture, Klein could see the lines that split his chin, the underside of his jaw and his cheeks in half. Back then, he couldn't smile in such a way that those lines wouldn't show. Nowadays he didn't smile, so he didn't have to worry about them, but if he were to smile, at least he could hide those lines.

He closed the locket as his scroll buzzed in his pocket.

' _Who could be trying to reach me at this hour?_ ' he asked himself.

He pulled out his scroll out and almost threw it; he'd blocked the public numbers of every company that had one, and yet here was a company's number, mocking him from the inside of the screen

New Message!

From:

The Icarus Syndicate

Klein ran his hand through his waist-length hair and sighed.

' _Bad Klein_ ,' he chided. ' _You can't afford another scroll right now_.'

He looked back down at the screen. Now that he thought about it, all public companies had scroll numbers that ended with 293. This one obviously didn't. He was about to open the text when he was struck by a feeling he hadn't felt since he'd left the White Fang; he was nervous. This wasn't the "about to fly for the first time" type of nervous, this was the "about to wage war" type of nervous. Klein felt that if he opened this message he would change the futures of several thousand people at once.

* * *

He shook his head to clear his thoughts.

"I didn't skip out on a free all-you-can-eat 4 kingdoms buffet just to get a weak stomach and bail out," he said. Klein tapped the scroll's screen and read the words.

Sorry about this.

He had just enough time to feel confused before the world went dark.

* * *

Lila was beginning to get kinda tired of getting knocked out.

First there had been the rogue incident a month ago, when some random idiot had deserted and almost managed to escape. Lila had been unlucky enough to be on patrol duty that night, and had been even more unlucky to run into the rogue, who, needless to say, had knocked her out. Rather easily at that.

And now she was sitting in a surprisingly comfortable chair, her hands and feet bound to it, a blindfold over her eyes, and a piece of cloth shoved into her mouth and tied so she couldn't push it out. Lila almost whimpered.

' _Why me?_ ' she asked Oum.

The extremely unhappy hostage attempted to calm down. Then she heard a door open.

' _Finally!_ ' she thought. ' _Just get whatever this is over with!_ '

She heard no footsteps, only the sound of a chair being dragged across uncarpeted floor. The chair stopped, and a few seconds later the door closed.

There was a moment of silence, then the sounds of struggling.

' _There's another hostage?_ '

Lila activated her semblance. How she hadn't thought of it earlier she didn't know, but now she was able to see that yes, there was another hostage. As a matter of fact, there were five other hostages.

She internally frowned; how had she not heard their breathing? They must've been trained soldiers to control themselves so well.

Lila studied the newest hostage, the one that was struggling. A faint purple glow created a shape that was definitely male. In the center of the person's chest, around where their heart would be, was a second heart. It glowed dark purple, sending small tendrils of light out to the person's limbs. Lila frowned, externally this time. This boy's soul was beating extremely slow. His aura looked like it was about to wink out of existence. He'd almost given up on life.

She turned to the next hostage, unable to look at the depressing sight any longer.

This one was female, and her aura glowed in all the colors of the rainbow, as if she were ten people in one body. Her soul, however, was deep black, though Lila knew that meant nothing. It beat slightly slower than a normal person's soul, hinting at a sad past.

The third hostage was another boy, this one smaller than the first. He was outlined in a warm, brown light with spots of darker brown. Lila was instantly reminded of a chocolate-chip cookie. But his soul was not as nice. Lila attempted to gasp, only to almost inhale the cloth in her mouth. The boy's soul looked like it had been shattered with a hammer; a million brown shards had been placed into a shape that resembled a heart, but wasn't quite whole. Lila had never seen such a damaged soul.

She tried not to sob for the boy as she moved on to the fourth hostage. A full grown man, he was enveloped in a strong red aura. There was so much positivity in that man that it almost seeped off of him. A look at his soul explained why; it was a deep crimson, pulsing as rapidly as if he were running. Lila knew the type. He was a mischievous soul.

The last hostage, a girl, had another unusual aura; it was black and white, which wasn't what was odd about it. What was odd is that it was constantly changing pattern. One second it'd be a checkerboard, the next a polka-dot pattern, then horizontal stripes. Her aura could easily give someone a seizure. Her soul wasn't as odd, just a half-black, half-white heart. It beat as fast as the man's heart, but it felt more familiar, almost like an old friend, even though Lila had never seen this girl before. If she had to guess, this girl was the type of person who could make you feel comfortable and safe just by speaking. In other words, she was probably the most dangerous person in the room.

Lila looked back at the man with the red glow, who was starting to fidget around in his chair. Then he disappeared. Lila jumped so hard she moved the chair back a few inches. Then, as quickly as he'd disappeared, the man returned, except now he was moving. He stood and stretched, then ungagged the girl next to him. She immediately tried to scream, but the man covered her mouth with his hand and said, "I managed to get free. I'll untie you all if you promise to not call for help or attack me. Agreed?"

Everyone in the room nodded.

The man took his hand off the girl's mouth then untied her hands and feet & took of her blindfold. He said, "Untie the others."

The monochrome aura'd girl nodded and moved to untie Lila while the man untied the boy with the broken soul. Lila felt the bonds around her ankles fall, then the ones around her wrists. She stretched without standing so the girl could ungag and unblind her. She wasn't as fast as the man, who had already untied two of the other hostages. The only one left was the boy with the purple aura.

The blindfold fell away from her eyes, giving Lila her first real look at the other hostages.

* * *

Krov looked in at her freed hostages through the one-way window into the room. Grabbing a small microphone, she said, "I wasn't expecting you to free yourselves so quickly. Color me impressed."

The only people that didn't jump were the man and the shorter boy. The others could have broken a record. Krov smiled. "Calm down a little. I'm not planning on hurting you."

The boy in the hoodie glared at the ceiling.

"Who are you with? The Councils? The White Fang?"

The shortest girl, the one who'd jumped when the man turned to smoke, stiffened slightly at the mention of the terrorist group.

"I'm with neither," Krov replied. "I work for the whole of Remnant, not any particular group."

The boy who hadn't jumped stared into one of the room's four speakers.

"Then why resort to kidnapping? Doesn't seem like hurting us bothers you," he said.

"Fair point, but I wouldn't do this if I had a choice."

"It seems to me like you had a choice and just didn't like the alternative."

Krov didn't say anything to that. She remembered that the boy was dangerously good at reading people.

"Am I correct?" he asked.

Another hostage, a girl with alternating black and white hair stepped towards another speaker.

"Now now. I don't think we need to argue. Just tell us why we're here please," she said with a pleasant smile.

Everyone instantly relaxed. The girl's voice reminded Krov of her favorite tea, warm and soothing…

Then the boy in the hoodie put his hand on the girl's shoulder and pushed a pressure point. The girls fell to her knees and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. When he spoke, the boy's voice was cold and hard.

"Do that again and I'm going to do much worse that push a pressure point. Got it?"

The girl nodded frantically, trying to move the boy's hand. It didn't budge.

"Got it?" His words came out with a serpentine quality to them. For the first time, the other hostages noticed how sharp his teeth were.

The girl managed to force out an answer.

"Yes," she croaked.

The boy immediately released her and sat down on one of the chairs. Playing with his waist-length hair, he asked, "Well? Why are we here?"

Krove glanced at the girl with the newspaper hair, who was massaging her shoulder and glaring daggers at the boy.

She sighed. ' _Maybe I was wrong to choose him…_ '

The boy was about to say something when the man in red put his hand on his shoulder.

"You," he said, "need to simmer the fuck down. I dunno what your problem is, pal, but all of us were forced here, so it's best if we don't hurt each other yet." He made eye contact with everyone in the room. "Can we agree on that?" Everyone nodded slowly.

The boy who'd just gotten lectured helped newspaper girl up and whispered something in her ear. An apology, perhaps?

Once they'd settled down, Krov began.

"I apologize for knocking you out, all of you."

Her eye twitched as the problematic boy made air quotes with his fingers. The man shot him an angry look, and he put his hands behind him. Krov continued.

"As I was saying, I'm sorry for knocking you out, but I had to. It made it much easier to bring you all here."

One of the girls, the only person who hadn't spoken yet, asked, "And where is here?" Her voice changed with each syllable, as if multiple people were speaking at once.

"Right now, here is 20 meters under the surface of the single most important island in Remnant."

The man's eyes widened slightly.

"You brought us to Vytal?" he asked.

"Yes," Krov replied. "Is there a problem?"

"Oh no. Of course it's not a problem that you brought us to the most heavily guarded place in the world, where the punishment for disturbing the land is instant incarceration," he said, the sarcasm dripping off his voice.

Krov allowed herself another smile. "Ok, good. I didn't want there to be any issues."

She put on a serious face. "Yes, I brought you to Vytal. Don't worry about going to jail; no one knows about most of these old bunkers." She paused momentarily. "Now, as to why I brought you here."

She looked at each of them in turn, even though they couldn't see her.

"You are among some of the most skilled warriors in recent years. Your weapons are unique, and your semblances more so. However, all of you have at least one of these things in common; you want to end discrimination for the faunus, and you want the White Fang gone."

Before she could continue, she was interrupted by the girl who, Krov knew, had been watching the others while blindfolded.

"Why? What did we do? All we want is equality, fairness! Is that too much to ask?!" Curiously, her Ss seemed slightly dragged out.

Everyone stared at her, not sure what to say. To their surprise, it was the problem boy who answered. His voice was extremely soft.

"Equality is what we all want. But the problem is how you acquire it. Peaceful protests, rallies, things like that, those are fine. But what they're doing, what you're doing, is not. Murder… theft... kidnapping… That's why people consider you terrorists. And the actions of one person can affect an entire species. Maybe you aren't going out and stealing and killing, but people might treat you as if you are. That's… that's just the way of things. It's stupid and unfair, but it is." He glanced at the girl, then looked at the ground and played with his hair, a light blush on his cheeks.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, the monochrome girl started giggling. The others gave her odd looks, but smiles tugged at the corners of their mouths. Well, except for the one that had just given a sentimental speech.

"What's so funny?" he asked, his face turning a deeper shade of red.

The girl tried to fight down the giggles and failed.

"I'm sorry," she said in between bits of laughter. "I shouldn't be laughing, but… but how can you be embarrassed after such a speech?" She doubled over, clutching her stomach, the laughter still coming strong.

The others began to laugh too as the boy began to resemble a tomato. Even Krov had to suppress a giggle. The multi-voiced girl nudged the blushing boy in the side with her elbow.

"What's wrong, Blushy?" she asked, not even trying to hide her smile.

The boy glared at her. "I'm going to bite you if you call me that again," he said.

Krov intervened before the situation could escalate.

"He's right; the actions of one person can reflect badly on a group. Which is why the White Fang cannot remain. Their actions are making the discrimination against faunus worse, and if we're to gain true equality for them, then we need faunus to be held in a much better light than they currently are." She looked at each of them. "I will not force any of you to fight, especially not those of you who are faunus. I understand if you will not fight against your brothers and sisters, you mothers and fathers. But if-"

"Spare us the sentimentalities."

The three faunus in the room looked at the one-way window through which Krov was looking at them. The boy stood up.

"Spare us the sentimentalities," he repeated. The two others, the shorter girl and the multi-voiced girl, nodded.

The short girl said, "I haven't been with the White Fang very long, so I don't know all of what they've done. But…" She paused and glanced at the boy, then continued. "But what you've said sounds sincere, so for now, I'll fight with you. Just don't expect me to kill anyone."

Before Krov could say anything, the other girl spoke up.

"I'm not with the Fang, but I still want what's best for Remnant. You told us you work for everyone. If that's true, I'll work with you. If it's not, and we're working for your personal gain, then you should watch your back."

The boy cracked his knuckles. "The White Fang has proven to me that they only care about themselves. They took what was precious to me, so I'll hit them back just as hard." He grinned, showing off his numerous sharp teeth. "Especially a certain Adam Taurus."

Krov sighed in relief.

"Thank you," she said. "I can't promise that you won't have to kill, but you should be able to end most conflicts non-lethally." She looked at the others. "But will the rest of you help me?"

The man in red grinned. "How could I not?" he asked. The girl with black and white hair nodded silently. The short boy with shattered irises said' "That makes it unanimous, I guess."

Krov smiled. She hadn't expected this to go so well.

The man rubbed his hands together.

"Soooo… introductions are in order, I think," he said.

"Yes," Krov said. "They are." She paused to consider how they should introduce themselves. "State your full name, age, your species, where you live, and any groups you're currently with, including companies, gangs, and Academies, please."

The shorter girl went first.

"Lila Flieder, 17 years old, cobra faunus, live in Vale, enrolled to go to Beacon on orders from the White Fang."

Krov studied her closely. Lila was wearing multiple layers of what appeared to be silk cloth ponchos, which did a surprisingly good job of covering her down to her knees. They were individually covered either black, gray, or white. Krov attempted to count the cloths, but they blended in too well, even with their different lengths. She was also wearing a purple scarf and black leather pants with a scale design, as well as dark brown boots that reached halfway up her lower legs. There was also a fang of some sort hanging from a chain around her neck. Her hair was the same dark shade of purple as her scarf, and her eyes were dark green with slitted, snake-like pupils. She had a pair of fingerless black gloves with multiple straps for adjusting their tightness. They had a purple and yellow design that looked like an Aster flower on the back. Lila was about 4'7", the shortest person in the room.

The man went next.

"Name's Listig Perecto, age 35, human, live in Vale. I'm teaching the Combat and Shipping classes at Beacon, and I'm a Lieutenant General of Atlas's military."

Listig was wearing a red button-up vest over a dark maroon dress shirt with thin red stripes, its sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows. His right ear had a black stud in it, and there was a tattoo of stitches encircling his neck. Curiously, the scleras of his red eyes were black. There were multiple rings on his fingers, one of which was adorned with a black stone carved into a spiral. Listig's messy dark red hair reached down to his shoulders on the back, while his bangs reached his eyes. His tight, black pants had a slight red tint to them, and he was wearing black socks and flip-flops. His wrists were covered in bands. Krov had to make a comment.

"You like red, don't you?" she asked. Listig grinned and nodded.

The faunus boy went next.

"I'm Klein Feuer. 16 years old, anaconda faunus. Living in Mistral, enrolled for Haven. Former Lieutenant of the White Fang."

Klein wore a baggy, unzipped dark blue hoodie with gray sleeves over a purple t-shirt with a black collar. His black cargo jeans were slightly faded at the knees, and his black shoes had purple highlights. He had a bandage on the right side of his face, from the side of his nose to the corner of his mouth. There were also two small scars on his chin, one just below his lip, the others about an inch under the first. He had on a black leather belt, as well as a golden heart locket that hung from his neck on a silver chain. Though Krov couldn't see it, she knew there was an ouroboros encircling a heart with a yin-yang design in it on the back of his hoodie. His waist-length hair was brown, with a purple streak above his left eye. Oddly, it didn't seem to be the same shade of brown as when Krov had knocked him out earlier. Klein's eyes were mismatched; his right eye was light brown while his left was dark brown. He was the same height as Listig, about 6'1". Compared to the others, his outfit was rather simple. As if he could read Krov's mind he said, "I'm on a budget, so I can't buy very fancy clothes."

Krov nodded as the girl with black and white hair introduced herself.

"My name is Blanc Noire Schnee, and I'm 16. Human, living in Atlas. Starting Beacon in a week, and I'm a potential heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." She smiled at the others. "It's nice to meet you all."

Blanc's outfit matched her name; she was wearing a white vest openly over a black dress shirt, the sleeves rolled halfway up her forearms. Her vest had a metal rim on the bottom, from which hung multiple white tails, like on a coat. They had a black design that resembled a heart, but its top was separated, almost like doors. This design was also on the edges of her vest. Her legs seemed to be covered in some sort of silver material, over which she wore a pair of black stockings with white lace. Her slippers seemed to be part of the stockings. She also wore a checkered tie, but it was rather short, not even reaching the end of her sternum. Her hair alternated between black and white, and was knee length for the most part, with a white braid on her right side. There was a black snowflake pin at the start if that braid, which Krov recognized as the Schnee family crest. Krov also noted that Blanc has light silver eyes, which seemed odd for a Schnee. Then again, so did the black hair.

The shorter boy went next.

"Pluto Kirsche, 16, human, living in Vacuo. Involved in border defense and expansion. I will occasionally work as a mercenary for anyone who pays."

Krov noticed Klein's demeanor change for a fraction of a second. He went from relaxed to tense, almost as if he were about to attack someone. Then it was gone, leaving Krov to wonder if she was getting enough sleep.

Pluto's outfit was also simple, but Krov guessed that it was simply because he didn't like showing off. He was wearing a white, long sleeved shirt and reddish brown shorts. Krov knew that under the shirt, Pluto was wearing a metal studded leather shirt, but the white shirt was baggy enough that you couldn't really tell. Pluto was extremely sun-tanned, and a little on the skinny side. His short hair was dark brown and streaked with black, and it looked like he'd just gotten out of bed. Pluto's eyes were slightly disturbing, as the hazel pupils appeared to be shattered. He wore no shoes, instead opting for a pair of black sandals. There was a leather bracelet on his wrist, from which hung a pair of cherries on a stem. Inside the cherries were two pictures of the same girl. Even though the pictures were in black and white, her eyes and hair were obviously different colors, and it seemed as if there was a short streak of white on the right side of her hair. That bracelet, the long sleeves, and the leather armor were the only things that didn't scream Vacuo resident.

The last person to introduce themselves, save for Krov, was the girl with multiple voices. She said, "My name is Sarah Kuroi, 17 years old, half black fox faunus. I live in Vacuo, and I am not with any gangs, academies, or companies."

Sarah was wearing a black blouse that exposed some of her midriff and hung loosely around her shoulders. The sleeves nearly reached her elbows and, along with the sides of the blouse, could be laced together. She had on black, tight-fitting jeans and a gray leather belt with numerous large holes in it. There was a leather cord hanging from one of her belt loops and her right back pocket, and she had a pair of black-rimmed glasses with circular red lenses on her head. There was a small hourglass shape etched into each of the lenses, colored a darker shade of red than the rest of the glass. The girl's shoes were black with gray laces. Sarah's black hair was the same length as her sleeves, and was rather choppy. Her eyes were striking, beginning with a dark blue around the edges of the iris, then turning to orange closer to the pupil.

For some reason Krov couldn't fathom, she wasn't able to stop looking at Sarah, especially the way that her pants hugged her-

' _No!_ ' Krov thought to herself. Shaking her head to rid it of weird thoughts, she looked at her newly introduced former hostages. ' _They certainly make for an odd group_.'

Pluto cleared his throat, "And who are you, O mysterious kidnapper?" he asked.

Krov blinked, then remembered that she had yet to introduce herself. She spoke into the microphone as she walked to the door.

"My name is Krov Prolitaya. I am 19 years old and a human. I have a small apartment in Vale, and the only group I'm with is this one. Also, call me Rogue please."

Krov put down the small mic as she opened the door to the hostages' room.

"Welcome to the Icarus Syndicate."

 **End of Chapter 1.**

* * *

 **Author's Note: Chapter 1 published! I hope you all found it enjoyable to read. Again, if I messed up something important, please do let me know. Also, the updates for this story are likely going to be extremely slow. I apologize in advance if I take too long to update.**


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